Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 2.djvu/152



They comprehend the whole number of burials in each parish, antecedently to the years 1819 and 1820, as far back as the respective ages of the individuals are recorded. In no case is the series of years less than five; in some parishes it is as much as thirty-one, the average being nearly nine years, (8.84.) I now regret much that, in making my abstracts, I neglected to take any account of the sexes under the age of 80. The tables constructed from the parliamentary returns, are chiefly confined to the results of the census of 1821, on account of the more exact coincidence of this period with that comprehended in the parish registers.

For the sake of clearness, I shall divide the following tables into three series; the first exhibiting the law of mortality of the whole district of the Landsend, comparatively with that of the kingdom generally, or of particular parts of it; the second exhibiting the same law as it obtains among the different classes of inhabitants in the district, more particularly in the two principal classes of agriculturists and miners; the third presenting a comparative view of the purely agricultural or more healthy parts of the district, with certain other parts of England somewhat similarly circumstanced. with the view of determining the natural law of mortality of the district, when uninfluenced by causes having a deleterious effect on health, and most particularly with the view of settling the relative longevity of the inhabitants.